One of the larger brown and yellow-striped Nomada species. Its presence should be checked wherever its host, Andrena haemorrhoa (Fabricius), is present. It is very similar in appearance to the very common Nomada flava Panzer, but rather darker generally, though not as dark as Nomada panzeri Lepeletier. The presence of a clear notch in the tip of the mandible will confirm this (the only other British Nomada with a bifid mandible is fabriciana (Linnaeus), which is smaller and red). Take care when handling live females, however; female… Read more

This help page is for advanced site editors only.

To change settings for the species account output, including the header text on the first page, visit Site configuration > Species account gallery on the menu. This brings up the configuration page for the gallery with several advanced setting further down the page (please check with John before changing anything you are not sure about). However, at the top of the settings there is a Header text box into which you can place any content you require to appear at the top of the gallery's first page. Click… Read more

This article only applies to Advanced Site Editors such as Nigel!

Certain pages on the BWARS site contain dynamically generated lists of other content and are not built using the normal Create content menu item, rather they use the Views module. This is a powerful tool for reporting on any information held in Drupal, including nodes (content), users, terms etc. An example is the Download page.

A view can be output as part of another page, e.g. on the Home page for news and forum posts, or can be output… Read more

A survey of the bees and wasps of fifteen chalk grassland and chalk heath sites within the East Sussex South Downs. Steven Falk, 2011

A Provisional Checklist of the Invertebrates Recorded From Wales. 2. Aculeate Wasps, Bees & Ants (Hymenoptera Aculeata)

Warwickshire's Bumblebees - Steven Falk 2011

Aculeates are part of the vast insect order, the Hymenoptera. The defining feature of all aculeates is that the egg-laying ovipositor is modified to form a sting. The majority of species hide their larva and their food provisions in safe retreats.

In Britain there are around 590 species of aculeates. These include ants, bees and wasps. Aculeate life histories are many and varied.

Above: A tiny parasitoid wasp, Gonatopus clavipes.
Photo: Jelle Devalez

You can read about, and view… Read more

The spreadsheet that you can download here contains a list of British and Irish aculeates used by BWARS. This is a list of species and their names, recognised as being present in Great Britain and Ireland, drawn from work being undertaken by Gavin Broad (Natural History Museum), Barry Bolton, George Else, John Burn, Mike Edwards and Rowan Edwards. The list contains our best understanding of accepted names for species (species concepts), although in a few cases some confusion around names remains.

As research and knowledge concerning aculeates progresses, so too does the need to… Read more

This is a place for any notes and observations relating to bees wasps and ants. Often, casual observations can be important in building up our knowledge of how aculeates behave, but all too frequently such observations are not recorded or collated. This leads to much valuable information being lost. The aim of this section is to build up a repository of casual observations of behaviour, which researchers can refer to when seeking information about aculeates.

Many of these notes were picked out from correspondence on the BWARS Forum. In addition BWARS also welcomes any notes you may… Read more

Online

Britain - Steven Falk's Review of the Scarce and Threatened Bees, Wasp and Ants of Great Britain, published in 1991, and long out of print, may be available as a pdf online.